During its year-end conference, Coinbase announced the launch of stock trading and prediction markets in partnership with Kalshi as part of a shift toward a multi-asset platform. The exchange also plans to introduce 24/7 perpetual contracts with leverage up to 50x early next year, while its shares recently closed down over 3.3% before rebounding in after-hours trading to $247.85.

World Liberty Financial has put forward a governance proposal to allocate 5% of its WLFI token treasury, valued at about $120 million, to drive adoption of its USD1 U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin. The plan would channel additional USD1 supply into integrations and incentives across centralized and decentralized platforms, while WLFI holders are currently voting on whether to approve the deployment.

US November CPI data, scheduled for release at 8:30 a.m. ET, is forecast to show headline and core inflation at 3.1% year over year, above the Federal Reserve's 2% goal. This will be the first official inflation update since September after a 43-day government shutdown delayed October data, and it comes as mixed labor figures and futures pricing suggest the Fed is likely to hold rates at its January 2026 meeting.

Norges Bank Investment Management, which oversees Norway's $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund, has given full support to all five of Metaplanet's management proposals ahead of the company's 22 December Extraordinary General Meeting. The Tokyo-listed firm plans to restructure its capital base, issue new preferred share classes, and potentially raise $150 million via MERCURY shares to fund additional Bitcoin purchases.

On December 18 2025, the U.S. SEC's Division of Trading and Markets issued guidance on how broker-dealers can satisfy Rule 15c3-3's physical possession provisions when holding crypto asset securities. The staff outlined five specific conditions under which they would not object to treating physical custody as compliant, focusing on blockchain access, technical due diligence, and private key security. Commissioner Hester M. Peirce welcomed the additional clarity and urged further work on amending Rule 15c3-3 to better address crypto custody.

Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart expects more than 100 crypto ETPs and ETFs to debut in 2026, based on current SEC applications and industry forecasts. He cautions that a significant share of these products may be liquidated by late 2026 or by the end of 2027 due to weak demand, even as existing Bitcoin, Ether and Solana spot ETFs have already attracted tens of billions of dollars in inflows.

An analyst known as Deg_ape argues that the Bitcoin halving has never functioned as a rigid four-year clock, but rather as a structural anchor within broader liquidity and macro cycles. According to this view, macro bear phases expand and overlap as liquidity conditions shift, with recent data showing around $130 billion in new liquidity injections and a historic 30-day balance decline among retail wallets while larger holders accumulate. This divergence suggests that price action may lag underlying liquidity, driving capitulation among smaller investors even as bigger players reposition for the longer term.

Bitwise stated on Wednesday that Bitcoin's price swings in 2025 were milder than Nvidia's and projected that this lower volatility will persist in 2026. The firm linked Bitcoin's maturing profile to a decade-long decline in volatility, growing institutional participation, ETF products and a more diversified investor base, while also forecasting a new all-time high and continued outperformance of crypto-related equities over tech stocks.